


Mirror, Mirror

by cardinalstar



Category: The Flash (TV 2014)
Genre: Canon-Compliant, Gen, Harrison Wells Appreciation Ficathon 2016, enter zoom, reaction fic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-06-25
Updated: 2016-06-25
Packaged: 2018-07-18 02:56:14
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,100
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7296676
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/cardinalstar/pseuds/cardinalstar
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>In the wake of Linda’s departure to Coast City, Iris finds herself sitting next to a familiar hospital bed with familiar company.  </p><p>She would call it déjà vu, but when Harrison Wells said he was his own man, Iris found that she was  inclined to believe him.  </p><p>(Set post-2x09.)</p>
            </blockquote>





	Mirror, Mirror

**Author's Note:**

> This is my first time posting as part of a community event/challenge, and I had a great time working on this! I also got a chance to write narrator!Iris, which I haven't done yet and won't get a chance to do in my WIPs, so that was a nice change. 
> 
> Anyway, it was fun appreciating the Harrisons! Fingers crossed that they continue to appear in Season 3, because wow I would miss them.

Iris smiled faintly over the rim of her macchiato.  “So you’re really leaving.” 

“Yeah,” Linda sighed, taking a sip of her own drink.  “With Zoom knowing my face and Barry out of commission, it’s best that I lay low for a little while.  I’ve heard Coast City is nice this time of year.” 

Her friend’s voice was grim underneath the joke, and Iris bit her lip.  “I wish there was another way.” 

“There’s not,” Linda said, shaking her head decisively.  “I’ll be back, but I just… need some distance.  And some time to process.  I was able to forget about it at first, between learning about Barry and setting a trap for Zoom, but someone I know was just murdered.  By a woman with my face.”  She let out a slow breath.  “It just makes you think.  About a lot of things.  Like how you might have turned out, if your life had been a little different.” 

“Linda, just because your doppelganger did bad things – it doesn’t mean you’re a bad person.”  Iris reached over the table and touched the back of her hand, and for a split second it was almost like Barry was sitting across from her, hurt and needing reassurance –

Except Barry was back at S.T.A.R. Labs, lying on a gurney with a broken spine that would take weeks for him to recover from. 

“I know it doesn’t,” Linda said, and Iris shook herself back to the present.  “But it’s not really something you can forget about.  I wouldn’t have understood it until it happened to me.”  

Then again, Iris reflected as she and Linda said their goodbyes, there were a lot of _you wouldn’t understand_ scenarios in Iris’ life.  Barry had always had a knack for pulling life’s strangeness into orbit around him, and now that Iris knew about that world?  She’d had time to get used to helping with problems she couldn’t fix. 

Her drive to S.T.A.R. was short and uneventful, but when she stepped into the Cortex she couldn’t help but shiver at the quiet that permeated everything.  “Barry?” she whispered. 

“He’s asleep,” rasped a voice from the next room.  Iris jumped at the sound; she hadn’t been expecting anyone, but there was Harrison sitting in the office, pulse rifle in his lap. 

Iris nodded, then made a snap decision and approached. 

She hadn’t been close to Dr. Wells, to Eobard.  Not the way that Team Flash had.  Eobard Thawne had mentored them, carefully nurtured and cultivated relationships so that his betrayal, when it came, had cut to the quick.  It had been hardest on them. 

But it had been hard on her too.  Eobard’s influence on her life, while less direct, had nonetheless been profound.  Eddie’s death was the last in a list of things she’d lost, but ever since Barry had shown up on her doorstep with a small suitcase and enough grief to last a lifetime, the shadow of the Reverse-Flash had dogged her footsteps. 

Iris was a reporter, and this new Harrison felt, in many ways, like a new angle on an old story.  He didn’t have Eobard’s enigmatic smile, or his distant eyes.  He was temperamental, prone to outbursts, cuttingly sarcastic and at times even cruel – but he was _human,_ and in that way at least, he was an improvement.   

Eobard had spun his web around all of their lives, wrapping the threads with meticulous care, but Harrison just wanted his daughter back. 

“I thought you would have left by now,” Iris said. 

“And gone where?” Harrison stood and paced, the steps of a man on a short tether and rapidly running out of line.  “My counterpart on this earth is a murderer, and dead, and Zoom still has my daughter.  This is exactly where I’m supposed to be, even if there’s _nothing_ I can do to help her like this.”

He jerked his head in the direction of Barry’s bedside, as if her best friend’s prone, sleeping form spoke for them all. 

If Harrison hadn’t been standing and walking, the vigil would have been all too familiar.  Iris had seen Eobard sitting by Barry’s bedside often; his presence in the Cortex during her visits, when Barry had been in his coma, had been a reliable if somewhat unsettling constant.  The irony had of course been striking, once it became clear that Eobard’s actions had been directly responsible for the coma, and more besides, in the first place. 

Harrison, at least, hadn’t played a definitive role this time.  He’d encouraged Barry to fight Zoom, but ultimately it had been Barry’s choice to face the other speedster and try to put a stop to his rampage.  Harrison had expected Barry to succeed, but had too much staked on the outcome to accept failure. 

Iris couldn’t blame him for it, couldn’t hate him.  They had something in common, this time. 

“You know,” she said, “both of us have loved ones who’ve ended up in that monster’s claws.”  Harrison turned sharply to face her, and she continued.  “What happened to Barry wasn’t your fault.”

“That isn’t true and you know it,” Harrison bit out. 

“I know that I’ve got Barry back now, and that eventually he’s going to be fine.”  Iris looked at Harrison levelly.  “We couldn’t beat Zoom this time, but we aren’t going to give up on Jesse.  We’ll find another way.”

“There isn’t another way,” Harrison said, his brows furrowing, and Iris gave him a _look_.  “Not yet.” 

“There will be.  And all of us know that you’re the best man to find it.”  Iris pulled a chair over to Barry’s bedside and took a seat, feeling a small touch of pride when she saw the scientist crack a tiny smile.  

A stilted silence fell.  “I know you’re aware that I’m not _him_ ,” Harrison finally said, the upturn of his lips taking on a tinge of bitterness.  “But regardless, I am – _disappointed,_ in the way that my doppelganger chose to live his life.” 

Iris nodded, because understatements were par for the course when it came to Eobard.  _Her fiancé died because of him,_ Cisco had said when she and Harrison had first met – a footnote too short and too simple for the man who, even in death, had so greatly complicated her life. 

Harrison had his secrets, but that didn’t mean he wasn’t dependable.  No one would fight harder, do more, to help her friends than the person here who arguably had the most to lose. 

Eobard Thawne may have broken their world, but Harrison Wells was a man she could live with. 


End file.
